Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Walk This Way

I was picked up by a young couple near Sisters, high in the mountains near Central Oregon. Nora and Joseph took me to a weird shelter (which used to be an Econo Lodge motel) in Bend...where I stayed for several days. On the fourth day, I left...as I didn't think that the local Taj "Nothing At All" Mahal was worth the mandatory five bucks a day.

When I walked out of Bend, a white car pulled up and a guy named Rich (which I now know is an appropriate name for that arrogant, "Neighborhood Association" Christian) offered to bring me back to his farm.

His farm turned out to be a wide expanse of fields, complicated irrigation, cows, a man made pond, a house, a guest house and outbuildings.

As time passed, I marveled at Rich and his wife Jenny's penchant for discussing MY "salvation" after chugging down several bottles of Mike's Hard Lemonade.

I liked their dogs, flowers and the fire pit. The guest house was very modern and cozy.

But those two rural go-getter's focused most of their attention on being perfect Republicans. In the end, it made me want to puke. Jenny slammed the door in my face and Rich spent a few minutes saying every stupid thing that he could think of. And I walked out on them and put my thumb out again by the highway.

Rich ended up driving out to where I was and explained that a large accident (which turned out to be an emergency aircraft landing on the highway) a few miles ahead had closed eastbound U.S. 20 for the next four hours.

He offered to buy me a motel room for the night. But he was mad at me for leaving. I told him that he got what he asked for and that I can't be bought.

In the end, what little conscience Rich has drove him to check me into the local Sleep Inn in Bend.

But he wasn't at all nice about it.

And when he walked out, I said, "What a jerk."

The ladies behind the counter agreed with me and automatically asked, "Yeah, who IS that guy...your brother?"

I shook my head and declared, "Someone like that would never be brother of mine...in any sense of the word."

I went up to my room and the next morning, a guy named Buck was at my door...along with the General Manager of the motel.

They said that Rich asked them to "help" me.

"Whatever," I thought.

I ended up asking Buck to take me to the local bus depot and buy a ticket back to Ontario, Oregon. I also requested a few bucks in food money and got it.

Then, after Ole Buck disappeared, I gave the ticket back to the man and left him staring at my back as I walked out the door.

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Ruthie Rader

This blog represents 13 years of my life. This profile helps Google (which I have been connected to since 2004) introduce me to the world. I am 62 and I am still hitchhiking around the United States. I have traveled throughout Alaska, Canada and every State in the Continental U.S. I can also be found on Facebook and YouTube. I like music, photography, political voodoo, controversial issues, travel, caffeine and cheese...but not necessarily in that order.